Cornucopia (36 of 54)

Weekly Directive: THANKFUL

I can’t believe I spent $13 on a cornucopia just to tear it apart and stuff it with Levi’s. My idea behind this, was that cornucopias are supposed to grant their possessors’ desires in abundance. So this one is yielding Levi’s, which in return are producing a woman. These are man jeans and my girlfriend wears a 00, but we did the best we could. I also didn’t really plan to a background other than a green screen. I think this one takes away from the main idea. Below is a brief history I collected of the two myths behind the cornucopia, which I found quite interesting.

The cornucopia (in Latin also cornu copiae) or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, and in North America is associated with Thanksgiving. It is usually a horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles, or wealth in some form. Classical mythology offers multiple explanations of the origin of the cornucopia.

The oldest involves the infant Zeus, who was cared for by the goat Amalthea (“Nourishing Goddess”). It was said that while she was nursing Zeus, he accidentally broke off one of her horns, which then had the divine power to provide unending nourishment. The horn became endowed with the wonderful power of becoming filled with whatever its possessor desired. He gave the horn to the King’s daughters as a form of thanks, and from then on, the horn – or cornucopia – became a symbol of plenty and whoever had it in his or her possession would never starve

In another myth, the cornucopia was created when Heracles (Roman Hercules) wrestled with the river-god Achelous over the hand of Dehanira, a young maiden of extraordinary beauty who was the daughter of King Oeneus of Calydon. The competition (the legendary Fifth Labor of Hercules) amounted to a colossal wrestling match, during which Hercules repeatedly gained the upper hand. Achelous, who was able to change his physical form, changed first into a snake, and then into a bull in order to gain leverage against Hercules. While Achelous was in bull form, Hercules tore off one of his horns and in doing so, diverted the river. The Naiads (nubile water-nymphs) treated the horn as a sacred object, filling it with fragrant flowers. The Goddess of Plenty (Copia) later adopted the horn, and dubbed it (appropriately enough) The Horn of Plenty, or Cornucopia. Incidentally, Hercules later married Dejanira and the two produced an abundance of children.